Death-bowling a huge concern for India

The Virat Kohli ODI captaincy era has kicked off in style.

The new captain across all formats made his intentions absolutely clear ahead of all three ODIs against England when he said “No games are trial games, it’s like a quarter-final, semi-final and finals before the Champion’s Trophy in England in June. No time for experiments; the best eleven will be fielded and we will stick to the combination.”

A statement like this from the captain gives great confidence to the players. It means few failures will not cost the players their place in the team.

The first ODI of the series at Pune was worth watching and it will take some time for the result to sink in. Conceding three hundred and fifty runs at the outset and then coming back from being sixty-three for four to win with eleven balls to spare is a commendable accomplishment.

The match will surely be remembered for a long time. The game’s uncertainties are reasons enough for its popularity and fan following.

At the onset, playing Kedar Jadhav before Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey seemed a tad bit far fetched. I would have played with Rahane or Pandey instead of Jadhav. The team management however, having watched the players from close quarters, clearly had immense faith in Jadhav. And he proved them right in astounding fashion.

Considering the moisture in the wicket, the dew factor and the small ground at Pune, winning the toss was always vital. Virat Kohli winning the toss certainly gave him an upper hand. The presence of moisture in the wicket gave an opportunity to fast bowlers to exploit to the conditions to the fullest. That’s where I felt, India missed a trick as Bhuvneshwar Kumar is better equipped than Umesh Yadav.

But the Indian fast bowlers disappointed. At the beginning, they erred in line and length. They appeared more focused on speed rather than bowling to the conditions. In the spin department, Ravichandran Ashwin disappointed. This was a major setback for the team.

He appears to be bowling in a defensive manner and is trying to stem runs rather than putting up an attacking bowling spell and capturing wickets. The last ten overs cost India a hundred and fifteen runs. Sixty-five of those runs came in the last five overs.

India’s inability to bowl yorkers raises question marks. With so many ODIs and T20s under their belt, the accuracy should have been high. Sadly, this wasn’t to be and England made merry.

At one stage, England appeared set for just around 280, but the sixes from Ben Stokes and Jos Butler were particularly impressive. Three of their batsmen scored more than sixty (Jason Roy-73; Joe Root – 78; Ben Stokes - 62) but failed to convert those knocks into big ones. That said, Eoin Morgan wouldn’t be complaining as these knocks propelled the team to 350.

When chasing a target of that nature, you need your openers to fire and provide a great platform. India losing four wickets for just 63 runs in 12 overs was not the start they had hoped for. India’s top four wickets fell in varied ways – K.L.Rahul was bowled through the gate; Shikhar Dhawan, who had a brilliant chance to establish himself again after injury, slashed one to third-man; MS Dhoni miss timed his pull and Yuvraj Singh was caught behind.

With hardly any batsman left to play a long innings in tandem with Virat Kohli, India’s chances appeared bleak. But the stylish middle-order batsman from Pune had other ideas. His partnership with the skipper was breath-taking under the circumstances.

It’s a dream for any cricketer to bag the man-of-the-match award at home and with family watching from the stands. It was a well-deserved award for Jadhav, one that he is certain to cherish for a long time to come.

Hardik Pandya meanwhile, rose up to the occasion. He bowled his heart out and controlled the game with his bat showing off his all-rounder abilities.

Regardless of the fine win at Pune, India will be discussing their death-bowling in their team meetings. Top on the list will be line and length bowling and focus on yorkers. Also, batsmen getting out on short deliveries will be talked about as well.

If India is able to address these aspects ahead of the second ODI, England’s comeback plans will be severely dented. And if Virat Kohli’s outfit is able to wrap up the series 3-0, it will provide them with a great head start for the Champion’s trophy.

England is responsible for digging their own grave as they failed with the ball – bowling an erratic in line, length and a flawed strategy. Their fielding was not up to the mark as well.

While Eoin Morgan and his troops were prepared for Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav was truly an “out of syllabus” entity that stumped them.